


falcon and the winter soldier (alternately: and they were both sidekicks)

by kate13kane



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Feels, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Old Man Steve Rogers, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Sam Wilson Feels, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, anyway, i didnt change steves ending im sorry, mostly compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:07:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28664430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate13kane/pseuds/kate13kane
Summary: the falcon and the winter soldier tv show, written completely based on the trailer and the final moments of endgamebucky barnes and sam wilson, superheroes in their own right, both thinking of themselves as the sidekick to captain america. but sam can't be his own sidekick, and bucky is tired of only being associated with the shield. plus, they've both been dead. bucky's used to missing things. sam isn't.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson
Kudos: 20





	falcon and the winter soldier (alternately: and they were both sidekicks)

**Author's Note:**

> thought i'd try something new and write something that is actually going to exist. probably. we saw the club scene, if they don't get together i will scream. sharon is not in this very much on purpose because of plot holes and she probably kissed her uncle, which ew. anyways, please leave a comment if you like it, they encourage me to continue writing, and enjoy :)

It wasn’t that he was _angry_ at Steve, exactly. He just didn’t exactly want to talk to the old guy an instant after watching him disappear, young and physically healthy.

_He kissed Peggy once as far as you know,_ the unhelpful side of his brain supplies. _Why is she worth so much more than his lifelong best friend?_ Nope, he cuts that train of thought off before it can really begin. Steve wanted to rest, and if going back to the age of polio and Hydra got that for him, then Bucky wouldn’t begrudge it.

He stares off at the pair by the lake, watches Sam hesitate to take the shield as it gets held out to him. He still can’t think of the old man as Steve. He barely even looks like him, and has more similarities to the old creased portraits that Steve’s mom Sarah used to show them of her father back in Brooklyn.

Sam still hasn’t taken the shield and glances up, cursory, at Bucky. _What in the universe is holding him up? Take the goddamn hunk of metal, Birdman._ He nods anyway, as if he could possibly be the reason that Sam was delaying. Sam takes the shield and straps it on his arm.

_Oh. Wouldja look at that_.

Dismissing the fact that the fucking Falcon had apparently needed his approval or something, Bucky watches the weight of being Captain America settle. Sam stands a little straighter, left arm held tight to his side as if protecting the very thing meant to protect him. He bears it well. _I wonder if Steve held himself like that when he first got the shield too, since I wasn’t there to see it._

Bucky shifts his eyes from the newly christened Cap to the expanse of the lake. He repeats to himself over and over. _Stop thinking about Steve. Stop thinking about Steve_. It doesn't do anything to ease his mind, seeing as the guy is about a hundred and fifty feet in front of him, looks to have one foot in the grave, and had abandoned Bucky not ten minutes earlier.

Okay, so he didn’t technically abandon him, Bucky had known what Steve was doing. He had still done it though, gone and lived his entire life without Bucky. No amount of reasoning could really erase the pain of that. Fancy Wakandan brain tech could only do so much, since emotional pain came with the territory of being human again, he supposed. How far back did Steve even go? Neither of them had aged like normal people for years. Including ice time, he had to be well over two hundred by now. He looked barely eighty.

And sure, he should be allowed to be selfish, do something for himself after spending so many years saving other people, Bucky himself included. But he could’ve retired without leaving all of his friends behind, right?

_Did he leave me in the hands of Hydra, tortured for decades? Or did he fuck up the universe so he could give himself the perfect life? Bucky doesn’t have the energy to block the thoughts out anymore. Did he leave Natalia in the hands of the Red Room? Would he have left if Natalia wasn’t gone? Did he even tell Peggy that Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD? What about preventing the deaths of the Starks, he could’ve saved them and found me all at once. What about my siblings, did he leave them to struggle -_

A gentle hand on his shoulder snaps Bucky out of it, and those thoughts go back behind the locked door in his brain where they belong. The hand belongs to Sam, who is now holding the covered shield. The old man is nowhere in sight. Bucky keeps himself from asking where he went.

Sam removes his hand. Bucky wishes he had left it there.

“You good man?” Sam asks, genuinely concerned. Bucky nods, lifting his head and hoping it makes him look better than he feels. Apparently it does, because Sam’s worry mostly fades. Which is good, Bucky hates being treated like he’s fragile.

“Okay, cool. Coming with me then?”

“What? Where?”

Sam blinks, seemingly considering his answer. “Well, I figured we could find a place to live, to start. If you want to head off on your own though, that’s fine. And uh, Steve, he...“ Sam trails off, and Bucky makes a conscious effort to keep his face blank as Sam searches for a reaction in his peripheral vision.

“What did Steve do.” Bucky may have phrased it like a question, but it isn’t one.

Sam sighs and continues to speak with a note in his voice that sounds apologetic. “Steve, he uh, gave us another mission.”

“He. what.”

“You don’t have to come with me. I wanted to give you the option, especially considering who we’re taking down.”

“I’m guessing Steve didn’t say I had a choice. Who’s the target?” Bucky is a little annoyed now that he didn’t talk to the old man. Then he could’ve said something rude without risking being indirectly mean to Sam.

Who, to his credit, looks a little abashed, but not the least bit scared by Bucky's tone. “Well no he didn’t, but I am. You can go back to your goats if you’d like to.”

“Package deal, me and the shield,” Bucky mutters and then continues, louder so Sam can hear. “I’m coming with you, Birdbrain. Who’s the target?”

Bucky realizes too late that Sam probably heard the first part of what he said if the look on his face was anything to go by. Or maybe that was because of what he was about to say. “Zemo.”

Bucky stills, mind rewinding to the last time his trigger words had actually worked, and the very man who had spoken them. It wasn’t a fun memory, and they both knew it. But then his mind continues through the next years, and he twists to look at the man standing next to him. The shield is set on the forest floor and leaning up against Sam’s leg. Bucky tries not to look at it. “Birdbrain?”

“First, that’s a rude nickname, 0/10, and secondly, what?”

“Aren’t we still international fugitives?”


End file.
